Three's Company: Season One (1977)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer
Starring John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, Suzanne Somers, Norman Fell, and Audra Lindley

Released by: Anchor Bay
Rating: NR (sexual innuendo)
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Fans should own.

The morning after a going away party for a roommate was a little tricky for Janet (DeWitt) and Chrissy (Somers). It seems that a guest at the party named Jack Tripper (Ritter) passed out in their bathtub. Now, it all could have ended after breakfast, but that's when they found out he could cook and was working his way through chef school. He fixed them an amazing breakfast and thus began a wonderful relationship. The next thing you know, they asked him if he wanted to take the room that had recently been vacated by Eleanor, their former roommate. There was only one problem; it seemed that the landlord wouldn't look too favorably upon one man living in the same apartment with two women. They had to do something to allow Mr. and Mrs. Roper (Fell and Lindley, respectively) Jack to stay. Janet thought quickly and came up with the obvious solution. She told the Ropers that Jack was gay. The only problem with that little story is that Jack isn't and his new roommate Chrissy is really hot.

There you have the makings of one of the best loved shows in American television history. I think that Lucille Ball summed it up best in a quote that graces the back of the DVD case. She said, "It didn't set out to change the world. It just made us laugh and that is why we love it." Nothing could be more true. I also love this quote because I think that this is still what makes the difference between a hit TV show and a flop (the concept not the fact it's praise from Lucy, okay?).

Anyway, this formula just works. It's been changed around a bit over the years, but the idea behind the formula for each episode has stood the test of time. I really believe that if this show hadn't come around in the late 70s, there wouldn't have been room to make shows like Friends and Will & Grace today. Ritter, DeWitt, and Somers just clicked. Not only that, but the show had something for almost everyone. DeWitt represented the "real" woman of the late 70s, Somers represented what every male wanted the "real" woman to look like in the late 70s, and Ritter represented the desires of every man in the late 70s. The Ropers represented the aging parents of the 20- and 30-somethings of the late 70s. What more could you want?

Fell and Lindley very nearly stole the show from the main trio, but I'm glad that someone realized that the show just wouldn't work without the relationships of all five of these central characters. Granted, to a younger audience of today, the show wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. After all, why would a landlord object to a man living with two women in the early 21st Century, right? However, the jokes and one-liners that were written for that show will last a lifetime--not to mention the first class physical comedy delivered seemingly non-stop by Ritter. It must be seen by everyone.

Which is why I'm glad that Anchor Bay put this DVD together. Granted, there's not a lot to it, but if you are a fan of the show, you will crave every little bit that you can get. This first season was put together outside of pilot season in the spring of 1977. They put together six episodes and ran them on ABC as a trial balloon. The response was so great, they immediately picked it up for a second season and the rest is history. That having been said, it's a shame that there aren't more special features on the disc.

I know that, tragically, we lost Ritter last year, and it's his comments and recollections that will be missed the most. However, the only thing that might represent any kind of bonus material on this disc is the promise that Season Two will be coming out in the spring of 2004 as a special edition with a tribute to Ritter. I hope that they interview most of the cast and crew when they are putting that DVD set together and maybe get them together back in the studio for a few remarks on a commentary track or ten.

As it stands now, this piece of Americana should be owned by everyone who is of the age to remember when it first aired. I would be ready to drop it if a special edition of this first season came along, though.